Dallas ISD is Cooking Up Change

MIKE McGEE |
4/10/2017, 2:40 a.m.

Photo: From left, Jorge Bahena, Trishna Biswa and Karla Bocanegra, first place winners of this year’s Cooking Up Change high school culinary arts competition, were congratulated by judge Jeremy Tezano, one of the winners from the 2016 contest. The trio of students from Conrad High School will compete at the national level in June.
Mike McGee

The Dallas Examiner

Innovative ways to manage the cost of public school lunches; a hands-on approach to pushing back against childhood obesity; and the chance for a local high school culinary team to win a trip to Washington, D.C. – all three factors were motivators to the Dallas Independent School District student chefs in the Cooking Up Change competition held at the Art Institute of Dallas, March 25.

The contest is part of the Healthy Schools Campaign, an initiative that began in Chicago and endeavors to ensure that children have access to healthy school environments for an improved learning experience, according to the campaign’s website.

Twelve student teams from DISD worked for months to do their part in developing healthy yet affordable meals that could be served in their campus cafeterias.

Not only were the teams vying for an all-expense-paid trip to the nation’s capitol where the local winner will be part of the national competition in June, but the top recipe will also be added to the school district’s lunch menu.

“What this competition is about from my perspective is it shows the kids a sense of timing, balance, knowledge,” said Cheryl Harris, culinary arts instructor of the first place Conrad High School team, as she dried her eyes, overjoyed by the victory. The students under her guidance who took top honors in the competition were Jorge Bahena, Trishna Biswa and Karla Bocanegra for their Crispy Chicken Tender Wrap, Sassy Italian Corn and Banana Delight.

“They have to learn how to work in the real world when they graduate,” the chef continued. “This competition is a leading component for them to [say], ‘Hey, I have to schedule out certain things in order to make this recipe.”

The contest dealt with more than just food preparation. Harris described the “strict rules” of the contest the students faced.

“We cannot go over $1.25. That was our dollar amount, so they had to come together using their math, their English, their science; all of that applied together with their learning of the culinary world of having to present a winning recipe.”

The meal also had to conform to the dietary guidelines of the state. Part of the impetus behind Cooking Up Change is the potential school food plays in the fight against obesity that is on the rise in young people in the U.S.

“Absolutely, it had to be healthy,” the educator remarked on the team’s creation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that obesity now affects 1 in 6 children and adolescents in the United States. In 2013, the CDC estimated that 15.7 percent of Texas students in grades nine through 12 were obese, the highest percentage since 2001.

The five-judge panel that named the Conrad dish the best of the best included Jeremy Tezano, a Wilmer-Hutchins student who cooked on last year’s winning DISD team. He noted quite a bit has changed for him since his trip to the 2016 national completion.

“I’ve done a multitude of interviews, a lot of doors have opened for me, I’ve got my dish in an actual restaurant menu,” he said, referring to the Lower Greenville restaurant HG Sply Co. The “Wilmer-Hutchins” – consisting of pork over cauliflower rice with broccoli, carrots, onion and red bell pepper – is part of the restaurant’s health-conscious children’s menu and was designed by the winning team from last year’s competition.